Joseph Mallord William Turner, War. The Exile and the Rock Limpet exhibited 1842. Tate.
9 rooms in JMW Turner
This gallery focuses on the reactions to Turner’s paintings when they were first shown. Whether his works were praised or mocked, he never failed to steal the limelight in exhibitions
Having been picked out by art critics as ‘one to watch’ in his late teens, by his thirties Turner was known as a showman. His paintings drew crowds and regularly caused a sensation. He exhibited his work in various locations, from the Royal Academy in London to galleries in Rome. At the age of 29, he opened his own London gallery, giving him control over the display of his paintings.
Turner used exhibitions to show off his skills and stay relevant to the changing modern world. He often felt the need to compete directly with other artists. Fellow landscape painter John Constable said that Turner had ‘fired a gun’ by changing his painting to compete with Constable’s when they were exhibited together. Turner was notorious for using the so-called exhibition ‘Varnishing Days’ to finish his paintings in public. This fuelled gossip about his unconventional techniques and ability to conjure a masterpiece at speed.
Over time Turner’s work divided opinion. He became the artist that journalists loved to hate. They challenged the evolution of his style – his use of brighter colours and sketchy brushwork – and were puzzled by his subject matter. Responding to these hazy landscapes, one critic wrote that ‘to do justice to Turner, it should always be remembered that he is the painter not of reflections, but of immediate sensations.’ Turner claimed not to care what critics thought of his work and remained committed to showing his work in public. He last exhibited work in 1850, the year before he died.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, A Country Blacksmith Disputing upon the Price of Iron, and the Price Charged to the Butcher for Shoeing his Poney exhibited 1807
Turner made subtle reference to the effects of war on the lives of British civilians in several of his works. Here a blacksmith argues with a customer over the price of his services. Such trades had been forced to increase their prices after 1806, when a duty on pig iron was introduced to pay government war debts.
Gallery label, November 2022
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artworks in Turner and his Critics
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Harvest Dinner, Kingston Bank exhibited 1809
This picture of a river scene at harvest-time attracted little critical attention when it was exhibited in 1809. However, it was much admired by JS Cotman and David Cox, both of whom made swift pencil drawings of the painting while in the gallery.
The painting was derived from a sketch in which Turner experimented with the composition. Turner made no claims for it being a study from nature, but when it was exhibited in his gallery in 1835 it was praised for its 'true' effect. 'It does not need the man stooping to wash his face, to convey an idea of the sultry heat of a summer morn,' wrote the critic at the Spectator
Gallery label, September 2004
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artworks in Turner and his Critics
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Frosty Morning exhibited 1813
This austere winter landscape was one of the most personal of Turner's exhibited pictures. It records a scene he witnessed while travelling in Yorkshire, and is said to include his eldest daughter, Evelina (in blue), and his 'crop-eared bay' horse (pulling the cart).
Turner was particularly fond of this painting, which he preferred not to sell. It was also admired by contemporary and later critics. The Spectator saw in it 'the true tone of nature¿ imitated to perfection'. Years after Turner's death, Claude Monet saw it and declared it had been painted with 'wide-open eyes'.
Gallery label, September 2004
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, View of Orvieto, Painted in Rome 1828, reworked 1830
Turner painted this picture in 1828, during his stay in Rome. Unlike many of his Italian landscapes, it shows a real place. Turner made several sketches of Orvieto on his journey to Rome. The final painting combines these sketches with compositions Turner admired in the work of the 17th-century classical landscape painter, Claude Lorrain. This is one of a small group of paintings Turner showed in an exhibition he held at his lodgings in Rome in 1828. He may have reworked it before showing it in London two years later.
Gallery label, July 2020
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, Vision of Medea 1828
The sorceress Medea was jilted by Jason, and slew their children to spite him. Here she performs an incantation. Ingredients for her spell are scattered on the ground to the left. She appears again above, fleeing Corinth in a chariot, and hurling her murdered children behind her.
Turner painted, and first exhibited, this picture in Rome. The coloured rope frame is a replica of the one he originally used.
Gallery label, February 2004
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage - Italy exhibited 1832
This painting was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1832. It was so popular that people were advised to visit it as soon as the gallery opened to avoid crowds. One critic at the time said, ‘This is one of the noblest landscapes of our gifted artist; it has all the poetry of his best pictures, with all the true colouring of his less imaginative compositions.’ The title of this painting refers to Lord Byron’s long, epic poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. ‘Childe’ is an ancient title for the son of a nobleman. Turner showed his painting with these lines from Byron’s poem: … and now, fair Italy! Thou are the garden of the world… Thy wreck a glory, and thy ruin graced With an immaculate charm which cannot be defaced.’
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, Peace - Burial at Sea exhibited 1842
The painter David Wilkie died of typhoid on his return from the Holy Land in 1841. The Governor of Gibraltar refused to allow the body ashore and Wilkie was buried at sea. Turner painted this in his memory, placing a funeral carriage on the deck of the ship to stand for the public funeral Wilkie should have had. When asked about the unnaturally black sails, Turner said he wished he could make them blacker still, revealing his personal response to Wilkie’s premature death. Turner paired this painting with War. The Exile and the Rock Limpet, setting up an ironic comparison with Napoleon’s reputation.
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, War. The Exile and the Rock Limpet exhibited 1842
A pair to Peace, War shows Napoleon in exile on St. Helena, watched over by a British sentry. Perhaps painted as a response to the pomp of Napoleon’s state funeral held in December 1840, Turner shows him instead meditating on his fall from power. Even a mollusc has more self-determination than the former emperor. The lurid sky and a sluice gate in the shape of a butcher’s cleaver bring carnage and bloodshed to mind, the deaths of thousands being the price of Napoleon’s ambition.
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, Queen Mab’s Cave exhibited 1846
‘Queen Mab’ is described in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as ‘the fairies’ midwife’. She reveals secret hopes in the form of dreams, which she creates by driving her chariot over people as they sleep. Turner referred to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where Queen Mab is invoked during Titania’s ‘moonlight revels’. He may also have read Shelley’s poem Queen Mab. This painting was first exhibited in 1846. A reviewer called it ‘a daylight dream in all the wantonness of gorgeous, bright, and positive colour, not painted but apparently flung upon the canvas’.
Gallery label, November 2016
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, Mercury Sent to Admonish Aeneas exhibited 1850
This is the first of four pictures by Turner telling the story of Aeneas by the Roman poet Virgil. They were the last works Turner exhibited at the Royal Academy. Only three survive. They are his final paintings in the ‘classic’ style of 17th-century French painter Claude Lorrain. It is difficult to identify the figures. Trojan hero Aeneas stands on the left in his ‘Tyrian’ purple cloak. With him stands Cupid, the Roman god of love. The god Mercury, with his wand and winged feet may not be present, although part of the title. Perhaps he has already flown away, after delivering a message to Aeneas, as Virgil's story describes.
Gallery label, July 2020
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, Palestrina - Composition 1828, exhibited 1830
This painting is thought to be a work which Turner planned to paint for his patron, Lord Egremont, during his second visit to Rome in 1828. Lord Egremont wanted a companion picture to a landscape by Claude Lorrain in his collection.
Described as a 'Composition' rather than a 'View', it is an impression of Italy in its contemporary decline. It is based on Palestrina, the city which in ancient Roman times had been known as Praeneste, and whose loveliness had been praised by the poets Virgil and Horace.
Gallery label, September 2004
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